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PATRIOTISM 

VERSUS 

PARTISANSHIP. 

HORATIO C. KING. 



CJOMrtTMENTe OP 

HORATTO C. King, 

S75 Fulton at, Bwo^J«^ '\f. 




HORATIO C. KING. 



PATRIOTISM 

VS. 

PARTISANSHIP 



BY 

HORATIO C. KING 



ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE NATIONAL CIVIC CLUB 



BROOKLYN. NEW YORK CITY 



TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19th, 1899 



PRINTED BY REQUEST FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION 



NEW YORK 

MACGOWAN & SUPPER, PRINTERS, 30 BEEKMAN STREET 

1900 



Er7/3 



p. 



Patriotism vs. Partisanship. 



HORATIO C. KING. 



The safety and perpetuity of a republic rest upon the 
morality of its people. Said Washington in his immortal 
farewell address : " Of all the dispositions and habits 
which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality 
are indispensable supports. In vain would that man 
claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to sub- 
vert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
proofs of the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
politician equally with the pious man, ought to respect 
and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their 
connections with private and public felicity. Let it sim- 
ply be asked, where is the security for prosperity, for repu- 
tation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert 
the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in 
courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained without re- 
ligion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of 
refined education in minds of peculiar structure, reason 
and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religion." 

In the election of 1896, morality and religion joined 
hands to save the nation from lasting disgrace and hu- 
miliation. 



The echoes of the Divine edict thundered from Sinai, 
" Thou shaft not steal," have reverberated through the 
ages, and woe to that nation which, under political, eco- 
nomical or other subterfuge, shall dare to disregard 
them ! 

Three years are but a small space in the life of an indi- 
vidual, and still less in the life of a nation ; yet, in that 
brief period, a strange forgetiulness appears to have fallen 
upon some who were most vehement and eloquent in 
their denunciation of the Chicago platform, and who now 
prefer to accept the vicious precepts it inculcates to risk- 
ing the remotely possible evils which so-called Imperial- 
ism may produce. 

Perhaps it is well here to refresh the memory a little 
by recalling the obnoxious features of that remarkable 
document which so aroused public sentiment and rallied 
that great army of sound money democrats who placed 
country above party and saved the land they loved from 
discredit and disgrace. I venture to assert that no 
grander body of men ever convened in a political conven- 
tion than that which assembled in Indianapolis in the Fall 
of 1896. The delegates to that convention were not sup- 
pliants for, nor expectants of, political favor or patron- 
age. The ofifice-holder and the office-seeker were con- 
spicuous by their absence. There was a sobriety and 
solemnity there which I have never witnessed in any 
other political gathering, and I have seen many. It was 
the solemnity of men about to go into action, with the 
full knowledge of the dangers of personal sacrifice — a 
sacrifice of all political ambition. But as in the great 
war millions were ready and willing to lay down their 
lives if only the nation might live, so this Old Guard of 
the Democratic party, true to the principles upon which 
this republic was founded ; true to the teachings of 
morality and religion ; honest, not because honesty is the 
best policy, but because it is right ; brave and unselfish, 
enunciated that noble platform that rallied to its support 
a grand army of equally unselfish followers and defeated 



the purpose of that undemocratic mob which, crazed by 
the blasphemous metaphor of a Populist orator, nomi- 
nated William J. Bryan for President. Mr. Bryan's 
penchant for irreverence is exhibited in this extract from 
an interview printed in a New York paper this morning. 
Here it is : " The keynote of the President's policy is to 
be found in the assertion that Providence has brought 
the Philippines within our jurisdiction. It is to be re- 
gretted that the President did not explain whether he 
received this information direct from the Almighty, or, 
if at second hand, what Republican endowed with the 
gift of prophecy has revealed it. As the President him- 
self is responsible for every act upon which authority in 
the Philippines is based, he ought to be able to defend 
his course by argument, or else give conclusive proof of 
his inspiration." 

These words and this reference would not be necessary 
now were it not that the men in whose hands is the 
machinery of the Democratic party still proclaim their 
adhesion to this Chicago platform and present no other 
candidate for their suffrage than the one who was defeated 
in 1896, and has learned nothing from that defeat. 

It appears to have been overlooked by some that the 
money question was not the only obnoxious fulmination 
of the Chicago platform. It is probable that the ratio of 
16 to I made a stronger impression than any other plank 
because it struck right at the foundations of honesty and 
morality. But there were others which smacked of 
anarchy and resistance to law, and threatened the orderly 
administration of justice. The two planks to which I 
especially refer, which are as odious to me to-day as they 
were when first promulgated, are : First, " We are un- 
alterably opposed to monometalism, which has locked 
fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis 
of hard times. Gold monometalism is a British policy, 
and its adoption has brought other nations into financial 
servitude to London. It is not only un-American, but 
anti- American, and it can be fastened on the United 



8 

States only by the stifling of that indomitable spirit and 
love of Hberty which proclaimed our poHtical independ- 
ence in 1776, and won it in the war of the revolution. 
We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold 
and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to i, without 
waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We 
demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal 
tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, 
and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the 
future the demonetization of any kind of legal tender 
money by private contract." 

What has occurred since 1896 to palliate or render less 
hateful this dishonest proposition ? Has not the history 
of the past three years disclosed that Mr. Bryan's con- 
stantly iterated statement that silver and grain would 
travel hand in hand in relative increase or depression is 
fallacious? Wheat has marched to a dollar while silver 
has sullenly lingered in the rear at little variation from 
the price it held when its advocates circulated that fal- 
lacy. If the 16 to I proposition was dishonest then, is it 
less dishonest now? If it threatened the stability of our 
credit then, is it any the less dangerous now ? Is it more 
moral to pay one's debts in the near future, if this sentiment 
is to prevail— which may God forbid — at fifty cents on the 
dollar than it was in 1896? Are patriotic Americans 
content to emblazon repudiation on their national ensign, 
and receive and merit the contempt of all other civilized 
nations on the globe ? I do not, 1 will not believe it. The 
American people are a God-fearing, truth-loving, and an 
honest people. They do not believe in the odious politi- 
cal war-cry of " Regularity — my party, right or wrong ; " 
they repudiate, also, that other seductive and dangerous 
aphorism, " Principles, not men;" and in the face of this 
issue they will rise en masse to exclude from power the 
party that advocates such a doctrine until it learns wis- 
dom, and honesty and true patriotism. 

Without dwelling upon the platform's contemptuous 
attack upon the Supreme Court of the United States, the 



very palladium of liberty and order, let me recite the sec- 
ond of the most obnoxious clauses of the Chicago plat- 
form, known as Altgeld's anti-Cleveland plank — Altgeld, 
who, as Governor of Illinois, shocked the entire land by 
his pardon of the Chicago Anarchists : 

" We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal autho- 
rities in local affairs as a violation of the Constitution ot 
the United States and a crime against free institutions, and 
we especially object to government by injunction as a 
new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which 
Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and 
rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges and 
executioners, and we approve the bill passed at the last 
session of the United States Senate, and now pending in 
the House of Representatives, relative to contempts in 
Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain 
cases of contempt." 

Says Washington, " The very idea of the power and 
the right of the people to establish government presup- 
poses the duty of every individual to obey the estab- 
lished government. All obstructions to the execution of 
the laws, all combinations and associations, under what- 
ever plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation and 
action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of 
this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency." 

The nation in 1896 knew that this plank was a direct 
attack upon the Federal government's right to protect 
interstate commerce, to prevent the obstruction of the 
mails and the wanton destruction of the property not of 
the people of the State of Illinois only, but of the whole 
country. It was a reassertion of the sovereignty of the 
State, a dogma which, it is believed, was satisfactorily dis- 
posed of by the great war. 

The occasion for this plank must not be forgotten. 
Chicago was in a turmoil approaching anarchy by reason 
of the railroad strikes and riots. Through the imbecil- 
ity, or worse, of the then Governor, the railroads were 



lO 

obstructed, interstate commerce was hindered, the mails 
were delayed, and inconceivable annoyance and loss 
spread over the whole country. The State miHtia was 
lukewarm and inefficient. Millions of property were de- 
stroyed and millions more were placed in jeopardy. Yet 
no call was made by the Executive of lUinois upon the 
President of the United States to aid in restoring order. 
Remembering his oath to see that the laws should be 
faithfully executed. President Cleveland promptly grasped 
the situation and ordered the regular army to the rescue 
of the city from riot and disorder. To the remonstrance 
of the Governor of lUinois that it was a State affair wath 
which the Federal government had no concern until in- 
vited to intervene by the State authorities, the President 
made no reply save that he would perform the duty 
which the Constitution and laws required of him. Order 
was almost immediately restored. It is to the credit of 
the people of Ilhnois that the apologist for anarchists and 
the belated advocate of State sovereignty was retired to 
private life at the next election. 

Are these tenets of the Chicago platform, w^hich the 
party and its leader insist are to be reiterated at the next 
mis-called Democratic Convention, any less dangerous to 
the peace and prosperity of the nation now than they 
were in 1896? Is defiance of law to be encouraged any 
more now than then ; is morality in statecraft any less 
imperative now than then ? Are we to continue to hold 
up our heads in the presence of the whole world because 
we love order and honesty and truth, or shall we abandon 
these virtues which are the very foundation of our pros- 
perity and power, because another issue has arisen which 
may portend some very remote calamity to the nation ? 

And this leads me to the senseless cry of 

IMPERIALISM. 

But before entering upon this subject let me take issue 
with those who make active war on the administration in 



II 



its effort to put down the rebellion in the Philippines. It 
is not necessary here to determine which side provoked 
the conflict. My own opinion is that the blame for the 
collision lies primarily with those who delayed the con- 
firmation of the treaty of peace with Spain. No intelli- 
gent man outside of the Senate entertained the belief 
that the treaty could or would be rejected. The country 
was in no mood to reopen and continue the conflict. 
That Senators should seize this opportunity to air their 
views and gain cheap political capital does not speak 
well for their statesmanship or sound common sense. 
One cannot help at times in agreeing with ex-Speaker 
Reed that " a statesman is a politican who is dead." But 
it was not always so. We have had men who were equal 
to every occasion and stood pre-eminent as men of wis- 
dom and power. Aguinaldo, whom the anti-expansionists 
would have us believe is a modern Washington, was en- 
couraged by this apparent division of opinion to strike a 
blow for independence before he could know what policy 
the government intended to pursue. And it cannot be 
gainsaid that the continued agitation by the minority in 
this country has emboldened him to persevere until now 
his army is scattered and he himself is a fugitive from 
merited punishment. But 1 need not dwell upon this 
subject. As I have said elsewhere, *' In the war of the 
rebellion the magnificent armies at the front never fal- 
tered or were dismayed ; and, though defeat followed 
defeat, there was never a moment when the men who 
bared their breasts to a brave and honorable foe ever 
thought of peace, save with the restoration of the Union. 
The men who opposed them with bellowing guns and 
smoking muskets had less terrors for them than the cow- 
ardly carping critics or the secret traitorous minority in 
their rear. The visible enemy in line of battle won their 
respect because they had the courage of their opinions ; 
the Copperheads, destitute of this quality, had their pro- 
found contempt. In a great emergency there is no room 
for political division on the question of maintaining the 



12 

honor of the flag. Lack of unanimity means aid and com- 
fort to the Filipinos who are in rebellion." 

There may be a difference now in degree, but from my 
standpoint there is no difTerence in kind. 

THE BUGABOO OF IMPERIALISM. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War the regular army 
numbered about twenty thousand men — a wholly inade- 
quate force even to our then population of thirty millions. 
The nation has swelled to approximately seventy millions, 
and yet at the declaration of war with Spain the regular 
army numbered about twenty-five thousand, practically 
the same as in 1861. The necessity for an increased force 
is manifest. We are no longer a hermit nation and must, 
nolens volens, take the position allotted us by Divine 
Providence among the most influential nations of the 
earth. To maintain this position we must have an ade- 
quate army and navy. The best security for peace is 
ample preparation for war. The era of universal peace 
is not within the perspective of the youngest living to- 
day. The graceful convocation of a Peace Conference at 
the Hague (this is not to be confused with the Colonel 
Hague conference at Plymouth Church) by the Czar of 
the least advanced in liberty of thought, speech, and 
action of all the great nations is followed by a bloody and 
seemingly avoidable war provoked by the Boers. While 
political revolutions continue to disgrace South American 
republics, the millenium is still an iridescent dream. 
The old man Adam still holds sway both in individuals 
and nations, and the thoughtful man is wont to agree with 
Mr. Greeley, who, when approached for a subscription and 
met with the query, " Do you not wish to save souls from 
hell ? " testily replied, " No, there are not enough go there 
now." The greater part of Europe to-day is in watchful 
expectancy of a general collision, and no one can predict 
how soon the spark may ignite the train and produce a 
general conflagration. Might not the present Boer war 



13 

furnish a pretext to embroil the whole of Europe were it 
not for the unwritten but none the less powerful moral 
alliance between England and the United States which 
guarantees peace ? 

The Spanish-American War, in its speedy results, is one 
of the most remarkable in history. But what would we 
have done at Santiago without the regular army ? Let 
those who Avere in the fight on San Juan Hill answer that 
question, and not the noisy newspaper correspondents 
who for the most part had little to say about the regular 
army which did not go out of its way to seek notoriety or 
cultivate publicity. 

The cry of imperialism is by no means new^ It was 
heard during the great war. The apprehension of a 
dictatorship was not uncommon, and reached even the 
Presidential office. Some of my hearers will recall it and 
the manner in which it was treated. General Burnside 
had been defeated with fearful slaughter at Fredericks- 
burg and he w-as replaced by General Hooker, to whom 
the immortal Lincoln wrote : " I have placed 3'ou at the 
head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have 
done this upon w^hat appears to me to be sufficient reasons, 
and yet I think it best for you to know that there are 
some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied 
with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, 
which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix 
politics with your profession, in which you are right. 
You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if 
not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, 
within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm ; 
but I think that during General Burnside's command you 
have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as 
much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to 
the country and to a most meritorious and honorable 
brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe 
it, of you recently saying that both the army and the 
government needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for 
this but in spite of it that I have given you the command. 



14 

Only those generals who gain successes can set up as dic- 
tators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I 
will risk the dictatorship." 

The American people are not of the stuff which de- 
mands or accepts dictatorship or trembles at the shadow 
of imperialism. 

There was one occasion during the war when, if ever, 
the army might have been in the mood to resist the 
orders of the Commander-in-Chief. It was after Antietam 
when McClellan was relieved a second time and finally 
from the command of the Army of the Potomac. McClel- 
lan was the idol of his men. As I have written before, no 
commander of prominence ever had more completely the 
dev^oted affection of his army. It was the magnetic influ- 
ence which Napoleon exercised, and which gave to 
McClellan the loving sobriquet with which he was always 
mentioned, " Little Mac." It accompanied him through 
all the vicissitudes of his active command ; it followed 
him into retirement and throughout his life ; and when 
the sudden summons came, taps were sounded and the 
the lights were out, no man of that great army who served 
under him but dropped a tear for " Little Mac," the brave 
commander, the thoughtful friend and the Christian gen- 
tleman. 

The defeat of Pope left the Federal authorities in a 
state of wild excitement and fear. McClellan alone was 
the man for the hour. He accepted the responsibility. 
In two weeks he fought the battle of Antietam and drove 
the invading army back into Virginia. After refitting his 
troops, McClellan by a skillful movement placed them 
at Warrenton, completely severing the Confederate 
Army. He was about to attack each wing in detail when 
the order came from Washington relieving him from 
command. No reason was assigned, and the order fell 
like a thunderbolt upon the troops, who loved this com- 
mander as they never loved one before or after. The 
scene was memorable and characteristic of the man. It is 
related that Burnside was in McClellan's tent when the 



15 

order was received. McClellan opened the despatch, 
and, reading it, passed it quickly and without any mani- 
festation of emotion to Burnside, saying-, " Well, Burn- 
side, you are to command the army." Burnside, who 
felt his inabiHty and shrank from the responsibility, was 
almost overcome with emotion. But I have no space to 
prolong the interview. McClellan withdrew in a few 
days, and his active career as a soldier was ended. Of 
this sudden and arbitrary removal Swinton, in his history 
of the Army of the Potomac, says : " Having accom- 
plished his work of expelling Lee from Maryland he en- 
tered, after a brief repose, on a new campaign of invasion, 
and it was in the midst of this and on the eve of a decisive 
blow that he was suddenly removed. The moment chosen 
was an inopportune and ungracious one, for never had 
McClellan acted with such vigor and rapidity, never had 
he shown so much confidence in himself or the army in 
him. And it is a notable fact that not only was the whole 
body of the army, rank and file as well as officers, enthusi- 
astic in their affection for his person, but that the very 
general appointed as his successor was the strongest op- 
ponent of his removal." 

In any other nation I firmly believe that the army 
would have held to their commander and defied higher 
authority. 

So also at the close of the great war, many people 
were filled with nervous apprehension that the disband- 
ment of nearly a million men, and their sudden return to 
civil life, would be fraught with great disorder, and pos- 
sible anarchy. But that vast army which had struggled 
for four long and bloody years to preserve the integrity 
of the Union, melted back into the body politic without 
the slightest ripple, save that of gratitude to those who 
stood by the nation in its hour of peril and of which 
nation each was a component and vitally interested part. 

In a republic where universal suffrage prevails, im- 
perialism can never take root. It is a will-o'-the-wisp — 
a high sounding phrase to produce night-mares in timid 



i6 

people. It is the veriest nonsense ; a scarecrow and a 
humbug. 

ANTI-EXPANSION. 

Upon the subject of expansion there is opportunity for 
wide and honest difference of opinion. The theory that 
all men are created free and equal and have the same 
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, has the 
sanction of the Declaration of Independence, but not of 
practical experience. All men are not created free and 
equal. They are hampered by physical and mental limi- 
tations and local surroundings. The right of a people to 
govern themselves, seemingly inherent, is also subject to 
conditions and to the law of progress. In the abstract, 
the little remnants of Indian tribes in this country are the 
legal inheritors and owners of our vast domain. The 
Louisiana purchase was a fraud upon its population, 
which was not consulted in the transaction ; the acquisi- 
tion of Florida, New Mexico and California was an op- 
pression against their unconsidered inhabitants ; the pur- 
chase of Alaska has no sanction in morality ; the coup 
d'etat in Hawaii was a bold theft ; the subjugation of 
India a monumental steal ; the opening of South Africa 
to civilization a violation of the natural rights of the mil- 
lions of barbarians and savages who had occupied the 
land for centuries. By the same reasoning, the occupa- 
tion of the Philippines is an unwarranted invasion and an 
unrighteous destruction of vested rights and privileges. 

It must not be forgotten that the problem thus thrust 
upon us was not of our own seeking. The accident of 
war made these islands ours by virtue of conquest. It 
was not necessary to pay to Spain $20,000,000 for this 
territory to make it any more our own. It was ours by 
the laws of war, and our dut}' to determine through 
Congress what policy should be pursued in respect to it. 
The question seems to me too grave to be decided on the 
spur of the moment. It calls for the wisest statesmanship 



17 
— after the insurgents have laid down their arms and sub- 
mitted to the temporary authority of the conquerors. 

How little was known of these islands prior to the war, 
and how little more is known now, my hearers fully ap- 
preciate. It may not be amiss, therefore, to present a 
brief account of them as recently prepared by me. 

Until Admiral Dewey plowed his way unharmed over 
the mines in Manila Bay, destroyed the Spanish fleet and 
added a new territory to the United States of America, 
few in this country had any knowledge of the Philippine 
Islands, save the meager description given in our school 
geographies. Of course the intelligent merchant knew 
that there was such a port as Manila, from which great 
quantities of jute were shipped, but as to the general 
characteristics of the land — of its extent, its population, its 
products and resources, and its possibilities — the general 
public was wofully ignorant. Nor has there been very 
much disclosed since. By right of conquest and the ex- 
penditure of twenty millions, as I have said, we have now 
the legal right to call the islands our own. But although 
acres of paper have been utilized to tell of the prowess of 
our arms in this remote region, comparatively little has 
been written concerning the soil and people, and knowl- 
edge has been confined to a few seacoast towns and 
cities accessible to the commerce of the world. 

In 1898, appeared in this country the first important 
work on this subject, written by Dean C. Worcester, 
Assistant Professor of Zoology in the University of 
Michigan, a volume of over five hundred pages, quite 
out of the reach of the great mass of readers. In the in- 
terest of science he made two extended visits to and 
through the archipelago, once in 1887 and again in 1890. 
On the first trip he worked in Palawan, Mindanao, Basi- 
lan, Guimaras, Panay, Negros, Siquijor, Cebu, Bohol, 
Semar, Leyte, Masbate, Mavinduque, Mindoro and Lu- 
zon ; and on the second trip in Luzon, Panay, Guimaras, 
Negros, Siquijor, Cebu, Mindoro, Mindanao, Basilan, 
Sulu, Tawi Tawi, Palawan, Culion, Busuauga, Samar, 



MMM 



Romblon, Tablas, Sibuyan and Masbate. In this latter 
excursion he had the advantage of official recognition by 
the Spanish authorities, and went among all classes, from 
the highest to the wildest savages. With his most inter- 
esting book as a basis, I purpose to present some facts 
which may be both interesting and instructive. 

There are about 1,200 islands in all, and the important 
ones, with their area in square miles, are Luzon 41,000, 
Mindanao 37,500, Samar 53,000, Panay 4,600, Palawan 
4,150, Mindoro 4,050, Leyte 3,090, Negros 2,300, Cebu 
1,650, Masbate 1,315, Bohol 925 and Catanduaues 450, 
while Basilan, Basuauga, Culion, Mavinduque, Tablu, 
Dinagat, Sulu, Guimaras, Tawi Tawi, Siquijor, Balabac, 
Sibuyan, Panaon, Camigoin, Romblon, Tico, Burias, Bili- 
ran, Siargao and Polilo contain from 150 to 250 square 
miles. These are approximate figures only, based on 
Spanish official estimates. The entire land area is about 
1 14,000 square miles, of which Luzon and Mindanao em- 
brace more than half. Evidences of earthquakes and ex- 
tinct volcanoes everywhere exist, and several peaks are 
still in active operation. The land is exceedingly moun- 
tainous, and vast areas of the islands are covered with 
virgin forests of woods valuable for export. Mineral 
products, lignite, silver, gold, copper, iron and lead are 
found, though poorly developed because of Spanish re- 
strictions. Petroleum has been found in Cebu. Agricul- 
ture is in a primitive state and cheap labor difficult to 
procure. There is but one railwa}^ that from Manila to 
Dagupan, 120 miles, which our soldiers have been busy 
in destroying and repairing, as the exigencies of war re- 
quired. Communication between the several principal 
ports is by steamboat, but inland transportation is mainly 
by sledges and carts drawn by buffaloes or bullocks. 

The population of the islands is estimated at 8,000,000, 
but of many of them little is known of the interior, as 
there are no roads and no means of reaching the unex- 
plored regions where the wild tribes abound. The sea- 
sons the Spanish subdivide into six months of mud, six 



19 

months of dust and six months of everything. Typhoons 
of incredible force are common. The PhiHppines lie 
wholly within the tropics, and the mean temperature in 
Manila, where records are alone kept, is 80 degrees, rare- 
ly rising over 100 in the shade or falling below 60. Much 
of the time the atmosphere is heavily charged with moist- 
vire, making it exceedingly trying to foreigners. Malaria 
prevails in Mindoro, Balabac and portions of Palawan, 
Mindanao and Luzon, while other localities are exempt. 

The extreme point of Luzon, the principal island, is 
about 200 miles from the Island of Formosa. Manila, the 
capital and the chief city of the entire group, is 630 miles 
from Hong Kong, and contains a population of about 
300,000, embracing in round numbers 200,000 natives, 5",- 
000 Chinese half-castes, 40,000 Chinese, 5,000 Spaniards 
and Spanish Creoles, 4,000 Spanish half-castes and 300 
white foreigners other than Spanish. These are the fig- 
ures before the arrival of the American contingent. 

Save the cathedral and a few churches, the buildings 
are not imposing ; for this is a land of earthquakes, with 
a number of slight shocks annualh^ and occasionally a 
great one, as in 1863, when 400 people were killed, 2,000 
wounded, 46 public buildings and 1,100 private houses 
injured or destroyed, involving a property loss of about 
$8,000,000. In modern improvements the city is greatly 
deficient. 

The Island of Luzon is the most highly developed, and 
includes more than a third of the whole land area of the 
Philippines. The soil is productive, raising sugar, hemp, 
coffee, cocoa and rice. The population is estimated at 
5,000,000. The Tagalos and Ilocanos are the most im- 
portant and are civilized. The Nequitos, Altasanes, Ap- 
ayaos and the Gaddanes are barbarians, and will be as 
perpetual a source of annoyance as the American Indians 
in their palmy days. 

Palawan is the westernmost of the larger islands, and 
its capital is fairly prosperous. Its known wealth is in its 
forests, including ebony, logwood and ipil, a hardwood, 



20 



which can be had in logs eighty and ninety feet long. 
Voluntary immigration to this island was so slight, a 
penal settlement was established and hard labor exacted 
of the convicts. Law and justice are at a very low ebb, 
and this is true of the archipelago generally. The na- 
tives are for the most part in a most primitive state of 
degradation. 

Balabac is extremely unhealthful, virulent fever and 
berri berri being very common. Cagayan is a small vol- 
canic island, inhabited by Moros inimical to the whites, 
who are few in number. Mindanao is nearly as large as 
Luzon. It contains twenty-four distinct tribes, seventeen 
of which are Pagan, six Mohammedan and the rest Chris- 
tian Visayan immigrants from the northern islands. The 
wild tribes are of Malayan origin. Jesuit priests have 
done much to explore the interior, though there are no 
roads and Spanish authority has not extended beyond the 
coast line. Grand forests abound, and gutta-percha is 
found in large quantities in some localities. The island is 
well watered by lakes and rivers, as is also Luzon. The 
soil is very productive, and gold is known to exist in pay- 
ing quantities. Zamboanga is a considerable seaport 
town, large and clean, but with little commerce, due 
largely to trade restrictions. Sulu is under Mohamme- 
dan rule and with a Sultan who has accepted American 
authority. The population hate Christians, and white 
men are not safe there. Tawi Tawi has several settle- 
ments of piratical slave-hunting Moros on the south coast, 
with no habitation on the north coast save a little at Tat- 
uan. Timber and wild hogs are its staple products. The 
slave dealers sell their captures readily to the Dutch 
planters in Borneo. Panay, with its capital, Iloilo, has 
been brought under American control. Iloilo is the sec- 
ond city of importance in the archipelago, but foul and 
unhealthy. Guimaras is healthful, being rough and hilly, 
with abundant cocoanut palms, from which great quan- 
tities of tuba are extracted. Unfermented it is a pleasant 
drink, and fermented a mild intoxicant. Panay is de- 



21 

nuded of forests and of population except some wild men 
in the high mountains. The soil is fertile, and is produc- 
tive of sugar, and large quantities of alcohol can be ob- 
tained by tapping the nupa palms. Concepcion and Ca- 
piz are considerable towns, the latter claiming 25,000 in- 
habitants. Dumaguate is the chief town in Negros. It 
has 8,000 population, and shops are kept by Chinese mer- 
chants. The soil is fertile and the people apparently 
prosperous. It is the richest island of its size in the archi- 
pelago, tobacco and sugar forming the principal crops. 
The forests are peopled with wild Malays or Negritos. 
Cebu, on the island of the same name, was once next in 
importance to Manila until bombarded and nearly de- 
stroyed by the Spaniards. It has a population of about 
io,ooo. Corn grows well and sugar cane is abundant. 

But time forbids a further enumeration. Enough has 
been given, however, to show the general character of 
the new possessions in respect to race, religion, civiliza- 
tion, fertility and prospective value. The Christain pop- 
ulation is almost wholly Roman Catholic, that church 
only having received the moral and financial support of 
the Spanish Government. 

This is a country over which we are unexpectedly 
called to assume control ; these are the peoples, civilized, 
barbarous and savage for whose destinies we are in a 
measure, at least, responsible. 

The car of progress for centuries past has moved and 
will continue to move with irresistible force. To those 
who believe in an over-ruling Providence, this law of 
progress is the law of God. Upon the enlightened rests 
the responsibility for the enlightment of the ignorant and 
the debased. 

Before this Government could fully declare its fixed pur- 
pose, Aguinaldo, who represented one province, and that 
only in part, rose in rebellion. The intelligent and non- 
partisan commission sent by the Government to Manila 
had scarcely begun their work of restoration of peace and 
order, when this self-constituted leader declared open and 



22 



armed resistance. The rebellion was not a national 
movement. Even " in the remaining provinces of Luzon," 
says the Commission, the " Tagalog rebellion was viewed 
at first with indifference and later with fear. Through- 
out the archipelago at large there was trouble at those 
points only to which armed Tagalogs had been sent in 
considerable numbers. In general, such machinery of 
government as existed served only for plundering the 
people under the pretext of levying war contributions, 
while many of the insurgent officials were rapidly accu- 
mulating wealth. The administration oi justice was par- 
alyzed and crime of all sorts was rampant. Might was 
the only law. Never in the worst days of Spanish mis- 
rule had the people been so overtaxed or so badly gov- 
erned. In many provinces there was absolute anarchy, 
and from all sides came petitions for protection and help, 
which we were unable to give, as troops could not be 
spared." 

It seems to me that no one can read the report of the 
Commission composed of such men as J. G. Schurman, 
President of Cornell University, who had publicly op- 
posed _ annexation prior to his appointment ; George 
Dewey, Admiral of the United States Navy ; Charles 
Denby, a Democrat, and for many years Consul-General 
at Hong Kong; and Dean C. Worcester, Professor in the 
University of Michigan, whom I have already quoted, 
without a profound impression of its truthfulness and con- 
clusive force. It carries with it a conviction that in the 
Providence of God a sublime Christain duty has been de- 
volved upon this country which it cannot shirk or leave 
to the hap-hazard of some other nation, into whose hands 
the Philippines will undoubtedly fall if we abandon them. 

Upon the question of the abihty of the various tribes to 
govern themselves the report recites : 

" The most striking and perhaps the most significant 
fact in the entire situation is the multiplicity of tribes in- 
habiting the archipelago, the diversity of their languages 
(which are mutually unintelligible), and the multifarious 



L.ofC. 



23 

phases of civilization, ranging all the way from the highest 
to the lowest, exhibited by the natives of the several pro- 
vinces and islands. In spite of the general use of the 
Spanish language by the educated classes and the consid- 
erable similarity of economic and social conditions prev- 
alent in Luzon and the Visayan Islands, the masses of 
the people are without a common speech and they lack 
the sentiment of nationality. The Filipinos are not a 
nation, but a variegated assemblage of different tribes 
and peoples, and their loyalty is still of the tribal type. 

As to the general intellectual capacities of the Filipinos 
the Commission is disposed to rate them high. But ex- 
cepting in a limited number of persons these capacities 
have not been developed by education or experience. The 
masses of the people are uneducated. That intelligent 
public opinion on which popular government rests does 
not exist in the Philippines. And it cannot exist until 
education has elevated the masses, broadened their intel- 
lectual horizon, and disciplined their faculty of judgment. 
And even then the power of self-government cannot be 
assumed without considerable previous training and ex- 
perience under the guidance and tutelage of an enlight- 
ened and liberal sovereign power." 

And in concluding the preliminary report the Commis- 
sion say: 

" Should our power by any fatality be withdrawn, the 
Commission believe that the government of the Philip- 
pines would speedily lapse into anarchy, which would ex- 
cuse, if it did not necessitate, the intervention of other 
powers, and the eventual division of the islands among 
them. Only through American occupation, therefore, is 
the idea of a free, self-governing and united Philippine 
commonwealth at all conceivable. And the indispensable 
need from the Filipino point of view of maintaining 
American sovereignty over the archipelago is recognized 
by all intelligent Filipinos and even by those insurgents 
who desire an American protectorate. The latter, it is 
true, would take the revenues and leave us the responsi- 



24 

bilities. Nevertheless, they recognize the indubitable 
fact that the Filipinos cannot stand alone. Thus the wel- 
fare of the Filipinos coincides with the dictates of national 
honor in forbidding our abandonment of the archipelago. 
We cannot from any point of view escape the responsi- 
bilities of government which our sovereignty entails; and 
the Commission is strongly persuaded that the perform- 
ance of our national duty will prove the greatest blessing 
to the peoples of the Philippine Islands." 

It should be borne in mind that the resistance to Ameri- 
can authority is confined to the Tagalogs, numbering 
a million and a half of people ; while the six million and 
a half, the rest of the archipelago, are passive or neutral. 
The Tagalogs are not the most numerous tribe, but are 
outnumbered by the Visayans, who aggregate two and 
a half millions. By what right does Aguinaldo speak for 
the entire eight millions or more ? 

I have purposely avoided any treatment of this subject 
from a commercial, which is necessarily a mercenary, 
standpoint. That the islands would open a great market 
for the surplus products of our prolific fields and for our 
industries increasing with giant strides, cannot be denied, 
but I prefer to view the question from the standpoint of 
Christian duty. The islands are ours. They came to us 
unsought. The responsibility was cast upon us, I be- 
lieve, by a higher power, and their care and development 
are to form a part of that manifest destiny which has 
placed the United States in the advance guard of the 
nations of the earth. 

We cannot recede with honor. We cannot withdraw 
our armies and leave these peoples to anarchy and con- 
fusion. 

To the objection that the islands are too remote, I 
answer that they are nearer in time than New Orleans 
was at the date of the Louisiana purchase, or California 
at the close of the Mexican war. Steam and the tele- 
graph have brought the whole earth into close contact. 
We will read the news of engagements to-day in the 



25 

Philippines at our breakfast tables to-morrow morning. 
To the objection that our laws are not constituted to 
carry on a colonial system, I answer that there is no pre- 
tense that laws cannot be enacted to meet any and every 
emergency. What constitutional authority was there for 
the creation of an Electoral Commission? 

The treaty with Spain placed upon us the responsibil- 
ity of law and order in their recent possessions. The 
islands came to us by surrender and transfer after more 
than three hundred years of ownership by the Spanish. 
Theirs was the only authority which had been recognized 
as sovereig-n, and we are bound in honor not to abandon 
these people to revolution, banditti and barbarism. We 
cannot recognize the authority of a self-appointed dicta- 
tor and a self-constituted congress. We must assume the 
great responsibility thrust upon us, whether it is the act 
of war or of Divine Providence, and, in accordance with 
the treaty, we must leave to Congress the adjustment of 
the form of government which in their judgment seems 
best for the people of all the islands. 

For my own part, I have no fear that the final judg- 
ment of this nation will ever work injustice to any one. 
Our flag is the flag of liberty, of order, of peace, of pro- 
tection to life and property, and over whatever soil it 
floats it carries the benisons of prosperity and happiness. 
Christianity follows in its wake, and education and civili- 
zation thrive under its folds. The work before us is to 
prepare the inhabitants of these fertile islands, rich in un- 
told resources, to govern themselves ; to develop the 
riches so long neglected ; to raise their children out of 
the miserable mire of ignorance and degradation ; to fill 
their land with churches and school-houses ; to open the 
unexplored wilderness to cultivation ; to build roads and 
railroads— in a word, it is for us to carry to them all the 
blessings of civilization, of which they now have little or 
no conception. If this noble purpose brings wealth to 
our own land, who will deny to us this honorable reward ? 
The Filipinos will soon learn the difference between 



26 

Spanish tyranny and American protection ; between the 
banner of the stars and the red and yellow — the blood 
and greed for gold — of Spain. 

The duty before us is plain ; we cannot recede with 
honor. To throw obstacles in the path of the govern- 
ment in its efforts to restore order is not true patriotism. 
The blood of the noble Law ton and all our brave soldiers* 
sacrificed there is on the heads of those who have encour- 
aged Aguinaldo to resistance ; who place this purchasable 
adventurer on a plane with Washington ; who, by the 
most reprehensible methods, have led him to believe that 
by prolonging the unequal contest this government 
would recognize his authority and place him in supreme 
power. 

The world does not stand still. It is steadily advancing 
toward universal light and liberty. An over-ruling 
Providence — 

" Has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat ; 
Oh, be swift my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet ! 
Our God is marching on. " 

I repeat here the recent utterance of Col. Watterson : 
" No party ever threw itself across the path of its coun- 
try's greatness and lived to tell the tale, and no party 
ever can, or will, or ought." 

* This letter, written by General Lawton and received in this 
countrj- after his death by the shot of a Filipino, needs no comment: 

" I would to God that the truth of this whole Philippine situation 
could be known bj' every one in America as I know it. If the real 
historv', inspiration, and conditions of this insurrection, and the 
influences, local and external, that now encourage the enemy, as 
well as the actual possibilities of these islands and peoples and 
their relations to this great East, could be understood at home, we 
would hear no more talk of unjust ' shooting of government ' into 
the Filipinos, or of hauling down our flag in the Philippines. If 
the so-called anti-imperialists would honestly ascertain the truth 
on the ground and not in distant Am.erica, they, whom I believe to 
be honest men misinformed, would be convinced of the error of 
their statements and conclusions and of the unfortunate effect of 
their publications here. If I am shot b}^ a Filipino bullet, it might 
as well come from one of my own men, because I know from obser- 
vations, confirmed by captured prisoners, that the continuance of 
fighting is chiefly due to reports that are sent out from America. ' ' 



Some Interesting 
Figures 

Capital Stock of the Four Great Banks of the World, 
December 3i, 1899. 

Bank of England, - - $86,047,935 
Bank of France, - - - 36,050,000 
Imperial Bank of G-ermany, 28,560,000 
Bank of Russia, - - - 25,714,920 
Total,- - - $176,372,855 



Funds held by the Mutual Life 
Insurance Oo. for the payment 
of its policies, Dec. 31, 1899, 



$30I,8I4,S37 



Or, $125,471,682 more than the combined capital of 
these famous banks. 

The new form of policy of The Mutual Life Insurance 
Company of New York, Richard A. McCurdy, Presi- 
dent, provides : 

First— The SECURITY of $301,844,537 of assets. 

Second— PROFITABLE INVESTMENT. 

Third— LIBERAL LOANS TO THE INSURED. 

Extended term insurance in case of lapse. 

Automatic paid-up insurance without exchange of 
policy. 

Liberal surrender values. 

One month's grace in payment of premiums. 



For further information, apply to the nearest 
General Agency- 



TURNING ON THE LIGHT. 



A dispassionate survey of President Buchanan's adnnin- 
istration from I860 to its close, including Biograph- 
ical sketch of the Author by Horatio C. King, eight 
letters of Mr. Buchanan never before published 
and numerous miscellaneous articles by 

HORATIO KING, 

EX=POSTMASTER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 



With portrait or the author. 419 pp., octavo, cloth 
gilt top, uncut edges, price $2.00. 

^ ^ ^ i^ ^ ^ ^ 

PUBLICATIONS WRITTEN AND COMPOSED BY 
HORATIO C. KING. 

ARMY OF THR POTOMAC and POEM, (Illustrated.) - - 15 cents 
HISTORY OF DICKINSON COLLEGE, (Illustrated.) - - 50 cents 

TWELVE SONGS, 8vo., 39 pp., 50 CENTS. 



The SanDvS o'Dee. (Kingsley). 

RocKABY Lullaby, (Holland). 

The Light in Darkness, 

(Knimmacher). 

From the Desert I Come to 
Thee, - - (Taylor). 

Song of the Camp, (Taylor). 

Absence, - - (Whittier). 



CONTENTS. 

Fated. - - (Jean Ingelow). 

Far, Far Away, &c., (Brown). 

We Asked Where the Magic 
Came from. 

Only to Bloom for a Little 
While, - (Stebbins). 

I AM Lonely All Alone. 

Father Almighty, (Raymond). 



TEN SONGS, (School Edition,) 10 CENTS. 
Address, 46 Willow Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



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